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From diehard Kyle Lowry to new fan Guerschon Yabusele, Sixers are soaking in Eagles’ Super Bowl run

Lowry and Yabusele attended the Eagles' NFC championship game win over the Washington Commanders. It was the first time Yabusele, who is from France, had attended an American football game.

Tyrese Maxey of the Sixers greets the Eagles' Darius Slay (left) and A.J. Brown after the victory over the Lakers on Tuesday.
Tyrese Maxey of the Sixers greets the Eagles' Darius Slay (left) and A.J. Brown after the victory over the Lakers on Tuesday. Read moreCharles Fox / Staff Photographer

Kyle Lowry left the 76ers’ locker room late Tuesday decked out in a kelly green Randall Cunningham jersey, an Eagles hat, and green-and-white three-stripe Adidas shoes. A few minutes later, Sixers big man Guerschon Yabusele excitedly chatted with The Inquirer about attending an American football game for the first time.

Both players — one a North Philly native; the other a Frenchman dropped into this city’s wild sports culture — were at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday to watch the Eagles clinch their second Super Bowl berth in three seasons by throttling the Washington Commanders. It was an off day well spent during their team’s three-game winning streak.

“It’s amazing to have a city with so many sports — and successful sports, too,” Yabusele said at his locker following the Sixers’ 118-104 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. “Just to be able to witness this and to be able to be here — and be able to get to the game, too — it was just amazing for me.”

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey has carried the Sixers. But will it be enough to land another All-Star nod?

Other Sixers have been swept up in Eagles mania in different ways, even if their NFC championship game opponent also is owned by Josh Harris.

Newcomer Paul George was caught on video attempting to drive through the fans who swarmed Broad Street following the win. After All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey scored 43 points against the Lakers, he walked straight from his postgame TNT interview to greet a group of Eagles in attendance, including star receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and standout cornerback Darius Slay. Coach Nick Nurse, whose family relocated to the Philly area when he was hired by the Sixers during the 2023 offseason, said his two sons spent Sunday wearing Eagles jerseys and “playing football, like, nonstop all day.”

“It’s hard to cut them off to get them to bed,” Nurse said. “… They’re playing catch and diving all over the place. That’s kind of cool to see.”

Yet nobody on the Sixers’ roster has Eagles roots quite like Lowry, the 38-year-old who grew up here and starred at Villanova before returning to play for his hometown Sixers in the twilight of his NBA career.

He excitedly told The Inquirer about visiting Eagles practices and said that he now has photos with his kids and Smith, MVP-finalist running back Saquon Barkley, and star quarterback Jalen Hurts. If the Sixers played on a Sunday during the NFL regular season, Lowry regularly showed up in Eagles gear, including the popular Noggin Boss giant hat.

So this past Sunday turned into “a big party” in a suite at the Linc with Lowry’s family and friends, including Sixers player development coach Reggie Redding and former Sixer and Temple coach Aaron McKie, whom Lowry called “a guy I look up to.” Being an unabashed Eagles supporter also reminds Lowry of what it feels like for the people who fill the Wells Fargo Center for every Sixers game.

“I understand the passion that we have as Philadelphia fans,” said Lowry, who spent his NBA career in Memphis, Houston, Toronto, and Miami before returning to his hometown last February, “and how crazy we get when we win.”

Lowry went nuts from the visitors’ locker room inside Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum the previous Sunday, when the end of the Eagles-Rams divisional playoff game coincided with the pregame period open to the media. Behind Lowry sat Yabusele, who watched the closing minutes with quiet intrigue.

Yabusele mentioned that day that he had never been to an American football game but had wanted to watch the Eagles in person since signing with the Sixers. When Yabusele realized his team’s schedule broke in a way that he could attend the NFC championship game, he prioritized securing tickets. He wanted to be immersed in the crowd, where he said a couple of people recognized him but he could mostly enjoy the experience with his wife.

The Frenchman did not have much exposure to American football until moving to the States for the first time to join the Boston Celtics in 2017. He quickly picked up the rules and game flow because of its similarity to rugby. And he admired the physicality of football in person — “Oh my God, they’re beasts,” the 6-foot-8, 265-pound Yabusele said Tuesday — on a day when the Eagles scored seven rushing touchdowns.

The one sequence that left Yabusele — and, to be fair, many football aficionados — bewildered? When the Commanders kept getting called for encroachment penalties for leaping over the line of scrimmage as the Eagles attempted to punch the ball into the end zone — and the referee said the crew eventually could award a touchdown.

“I couldn’t understand what happened, because everybody was mad,” Yabusele said. “He keeps on doing it, so I’m like, ‘Maybe it’s a play or something?’ I was trying to figure it out.”

» READ MORE: LeBron James shows love to the Eagles players in attendance at the Sixers-Lakers game

Yabusele received a text late Tuesday from his friend, David Lighty — the former Ohio State basketball player who became Yabusele’s teammate with ASVEL, a French club — asking him to compare the Eagles' crowd to fans at a Real Madrid soccer match. Though Yabusele used to play for Real Madrid’s basketball club, he acknowledged: “You know what? I’ve got to give it to the Eagles, man.”

“They [were] turning up the whole game,” Yabusele said. “It never stopped. Madrid football, they will cheer when it’s a goal or when it’s something good. But sometimes, it gets quiet a little bit. That was the difference. Here, I’m looking at everybody. It’s a whole vibe.

“When somebody scored, everybody turns around. Everybody’s shaking hands. The whole thing was just amazing.”

The one experience Yabusele missed in his ideal introduction to an Eagles game day: the Broad Street postgame frenzy. He is pulling for a Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs, so he can wade into that crowd after the Sixers play in Milwaukee earlier that day.

That afternoon road game makes logistics a little more complicated than last Sunday. And when Lowry — who has been known to quickly shift from postgame locker room to private jet to the Super Bowl — was asked about his plans for Feb. 9, he played it coy.

“I’m not giving you no secrets,” Lowry said. “I’m not saying nothing about nothing right now.”